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Executive Director/Archives Advisor's Report
Submitted by Michael Gourlie, Executive Director/Archives Advisor
The role of the Archives Advisor is to provide advice about archival procedures and practices to ASA members as well as organizations and businesses embarking upon an archival program. My sixth year as Archives Advisor has taken me to community museums and archives, colleges, historic sites, and not-for-profit organizations. The individuals and organizations asked a variety of questions that reflected concerns over preservation, archival appraisal, grants, and arrangement and description. A statistical analysis of the types of inquiries follows this report.
A major component of the advisory services program is the on-site visit. During 2002-2003, site visits were made to seventeen institutions: Grande Prairie Regional Archives, Olds College, Historic Atlas Coal Mine Society, Prairie Bible College, Mennonite Historical Society, Stony Plain Multicultural Heritage Centre, Strathcona County Museum and Archives, Kingsway Business Association, Lac La Biche Historical Mission, Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives, Jewish Archives and Historical Society of Edmonton and Northern Alberta, Christian Health Association of Alberta, CKUA radio station, Telephone Historical Centre (Edmonton), Rocky Mountain College (Calgary), Firefighters Museum (Calgary), and Peigan First Nation
In addition to providing advisory services, I undertook a variety of other projects on behalf of the ASA. These initiatives included:
- assisting ASA committees with a variety of education, grants and CAIN-related projects
- presenting workshops on grants and basic archival education, including the ASA's Archives Education Institute
- attending ASA Board meetings
- liaising with allied heritage organizations
- in conjunction with other ASA contractors, assisting in with aspects of the ASA's ANA project, including Cinemage training and the production of the ANA database manual
- producing a quarterly column for the ASA newsletter
The coming year will bring new projects, additional site visits, and public awareness initiatives to assist in the development of Alberta's archival community. I look forward to your calls and emails, and thanks go out to the Board members, Committee chairs, and all the ASA members who have been so helpful and welcoming during this past year.
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